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Toronto homeowners who don’t regularly clear their sidewalks after a snowfall can be at risk to be found responsible for any accidents that might occur, Toronto litigator Stefan Rosenbaum tells AdvocateDaily.com.

“If the city has documentation showing that they’ve continually issued warnings or citations to the homeowner, or evidence that the homeowner has created a hazard on the city sidewalk, then they have a stronger argument that it’s the homeowner’s responsibility for any slip and fall that may have resulted from that,” says Rosenbaum, an associate with Shibley Righton LLP. “Obviously the counter-argument is that it’s the city’s sidewalk and the city can’t completely delegate its responsibility of the sidewalk to homeowners.”

A Toronto bylaw requires homeowners to clearthe sidewalks in front of their properties within 12 hours of a snowfall. And it has a program in place to assist homeowners that are unable to do the work.

So the onus is on the homeowner to ensure their section of sidewalk is safe. Homeowners can be warned and even fined for not maintaining a clear space, although trying to enforce that could be onerous for the city.

When an accident does occur, deciding who is responsible isn’t always so easy, Rosenbaum explains.

Condominium corporations should start factoring increased labour costs into their budgets as amendments to Ontario's Employment Standards Act come into effect in the new year, says Toronto labour and employment lawyer John De Vellis.

Proposed changes to the Act include equal pay for part-timers who do the same work as full-timers with the same seniority; on-call provisions for employees; longer leaves for various purposes; and a higher minimum wage, says De Vellis, a partner with Shibley Righton LLP.

Those higher labour costs should now be in the minds of those who pen annual budgets for condos, he tells AdvocateDaily.com.

Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, which contains amendments to the Employment Standards Act, received royal assent on Nov. 27. Parts of the bill are already in force but most provisions will take effect on Jan. 1 and April 1.

De Vellis says condominium corporations must budget for the proposed minimum wage increases — $14 an hour on Jan. 1, 2018, and $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2019, followed by inflation adjustments.

In an interview with AdvocateDaily.com, Toronto civil and commercial litigator Jonathan Miller says he’s encouraged to see the government taking modernization seriously.

“The progress that is most interesting to me is the development of the ‘state-of-the-art’ digital service,” says Miller, an associate with the Toronto office of Shibley Righton LLP.

“I'm curious to see what it will look like and what impact it will have on eliminating or reducing paper filings. For example, will everything move toward electronic filing rather than just pleadings?”

Miller says there will likely be bumps in the road as the government rolls out the plan, “but in theory, it sounds promising.”